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Topic: What's for dinner? (Read 189292 times)

In the life of a 2 kid household, (one of which goes to bed at like 6pm!?) i've really learned to love my pressure cooker.Yesterday was caramelized pumpking risotto, cooked in 7 minutes. Never am i going back to the standard method. Every grain was perfect.Also made a pork and poblano stew in 30 minutes in the cooker for tonights dinner.

We only have one kid, but kindergarten dictates going to sleep much earlier than last year. Sad face. We love our pressure cooker for quick braises and stews. 6PM, really? You are lucky, maybe, unless you are getting up at the crack of dawn.

In the life of a 2 kid household, (one of which goes to bed at like 6pm!?) i've really learned to love my pressure cooker.Yesterday was caramelized pumpking risotto, cooked in 7 minutes. Never am i going back to the standard method. Every grain was perfect.Also made a pork and poblano stew in 30 minutes in the cooker for tonights dinner.

Give us a bit of instruction on that pressure cooker risotto, it looks and sounds great..

.....

Very easy. Basics as follows:Saute onion/shallot in oil per normal risotto.Add risotto rice (weigh before adding)Saute' riceAdd broth and some wine in a 2:1 weight ratio vs. the rice ( i used 200g rice, 350g broth, 50g wine).Stir, bring to boil. Cover, bring to pressure (15psi)Cook 6 minutesDepressurize rapidly under cool running water.Taste rice. YOu'll likely need about 3 more minutes of cooking and some more broth/water.

I just went out to our garden and picked a pot of turnip greens this morning, rinsed them 3 times and they are so beautiful. This is the first harvest this year and I planted a bunch. We also have collards and beets almost ready. We haven't had much rain this month so I think they will get watered soon.

Tonights dinner will be greens, pinto beans and cornbread, just a good down home Southern meal.

Here is part of the process of getting some of the delicious lamb chops from Shadybrook farm to the table.

The loin chops looked really nice and were a good thickness, I fussed with them a bit with garlic, thyme, rosemary and salt and pepper. They were cooked on the Weber Go-Anywhere charcoal grill that I like so much, about 1 1/2 inches from some very hot coals for 2 minutes then moved to the non-charcoal end of that rectangular cooker for about 4-5 minutes to finish, they are as rare as we both like them and honestly delicious. I'd show the go-to-the-table plated pictures but the curried carrots I made are UGLY. I made a couscous with fresh peas to go along with this meal, it by itself got good comments.

I just went out to our garden and picked a pot of turnip greens this morning, rinsed them 3 times and they are so beautiful. This is the first harvest this year and I planted a bunch. We also have collards and beets almost ready. We haven't had much rain this month so I think they will get watered soon.

Tonights dinner will be greens, pinto beans and cornbread, just a good down home Southern meal.

I just went out to our garden and picked a pot of turnip greens this morning, rinsed them 3 times and they are so beautiful. This is the first harvest this year and I planted a bunch. We also have collards and beets almost ready. We haven't had much rain this month so I think they will get watered soon.

Tonights dinner will be greens, pinto beans and cornbread, just a good down home Southern meal.

Tonight I'm making a stew-sort-of-thing with a few parts of the lamb I just got. The flavor is amazing, I'm braising some arm lamb-chops for a turnip, parsnip, carrot, potato based one dish dinner tonight. We might stir some sour cream into it before service for some acid...

On Thursday, we had some time so I thawed out a chunk of self caught yellowtail for dinner. I have cooked it and presented it a dozen ways but I wanted to see if shallow frying worked on this oft grilled fish we have MUCH of in our freezer.

I used roasted peanut oil and a bit of canola oil for the shallow roasting

I smeared the Yellow Tail with a mélange of ginger, Lime zest, garlic, chopped cilantro, coriander seed and fennel powder. Let it sit in the bottom of the fridge for an hour, then placed it in about 375º oil. I turned it at 3 minutes, and checked it at 7 minutes, turning the fire down a ways when I saw 118º on my Thermopen. I gave the fish an extra 3-4 minutes and then let it rest a bit before I shared it with Deanne on our plates. I did take too long taking pictures, but it was still pretty warm when I gave it a try. They are go-to Sugar Snaps and nothing much to talk about.

Here are two pictures, one of the cute chunk of YT in the shallow oil and the other of the finished plate.

This is a pot of Brunswick stew I am making for a party Sunday at our house. My wife invited a bunch of people and almost all of them accepted so we have a big crowd coming. I cut a Boston butt into steaks and grilled them on my Egg with lots of hickory smoke, then chopped finely. This stew is going to cook another 2-3 house with the addition of chicken stock as it goes. The recipe is from Garden & Gun and it tastes fantastic. I may add more of both the mustard and the vinegar BBQ sauces as it cooks, we will see. I didn't know it was going to make such a huge pot of stew.

Mustard based barbecue sauces are pretty popular down here and I have grown fond of them actually. A friend gave me a quart of one he made that was awesome. Last night I marinated a spay cocked Cornish game hen in the sauce and basted it while cooking. This is not a great photo but dinner last night was very good with sides of rice and boc chou.

Yum. Never thought about getting a prime rib from Patak. How was it and how much was is a pound, if you don't mind me asking?

We ended up cooking two rib roasts over the last week for relatives and friends in Buffalo. Did both the super low and slow method (oven starts out hot but then turns down to 150 after 15 minutes) and they both came out great. Bought another one at Costco on Sunday and have it salted and ready to cook today or tomorrow. It is prime so I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. We've been enjoying the other prime Costco meats.

We have a bunch of Thai restaurants in Beaufort, like 5 or 6 at least, but the Chinese places are pretty scary. If a restaurant has dirty windows that is a turn off for me. Anyway my wife and I have been craving some decent Chinese so last night with the help of Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook I made two entrees with rice. General Tso's Chicken and Peng's Home-Style Bean Curd. I started at 6:00 pm and we ate about 8:45 so it was a lot of prep and doing 2 dishes at the same time is always a challenge for me. The results were really good though and we both enjoyed a good Chinese meal.